Documents reveal brevity of investigation into swim coach

The investigator hired by Golden West College to look into allegations of misconduct against GWC and Golden West Swim Club swim coaches Bill Jewell and Mark Schubert did not interview their primary accuser because of concerns it would lend credibility to her and her lawsuit against Schubert and the GWSC, according to documents obtained by the Orange County Register.

Schubert, an eight-time U.S. Olympic team coach, and Jewell were interviewed for only four minutes each as part of a Norman A. Traub Associates investigation last year that on Nov 19 cleared Jewell of inappropriate behavior toward teenage female swimmers and Schubert of failing to deal with Jewell's alleged misconduct in an appropriate manner, according to transcripts of their interviews.

Former GWSC coach and administrator Dia Rianda in a lawsuit filed against Schubert and GWSC last September alleged that Jewell improperly touched and massaged teenage female swimmers and made inappropriate sexual comments in violation of USA Swimming's Code of Conduct. Rianda alleges in her suit that she was fired by Schubert on July 11 after making repeated complaints about Jewell and Schubert's alleged failure to take action.

"Nancy Drew would have done a more thorough job," B. Robert Allard, attorney for Rianda, said of the GWC investigation.

Although the investigation was described as "extensive" by GWC president Wes Bryan in a Nov. 30 letter to GWSC board members, George A. Vanecek, who conducted the $3,481 investigation, acknowledged in a telephone interview Friday that neither Rianda nor other GWC coaches who had made allegations against Jewell or expressed concerns about his behavior to Schubert were interviewed. GWSC also holds training sessions at the GWC facilities.

"The only purpose was to investigate into whether (GWC) had liability for continuing to employ or hire Mr. Jewell or Mr. Schubert," Vanecek said. "That was the sole focus."

Bryan declined comment Friday, saying, "I am not able to make any comment on matters that are presently in litigation that involve the College.”

Vanecek sent out 88 emails to GWC swim program participants asking if they had witnessed or were aware of inappropriate behavior. None of the 87 respondents said they had. GWC also received 10 emails praising Jewell and Schubert.

Vanecek also interviewed Schubert and Jewell and five other GWC employees. None of them said they had witnessed or heard rumors of misconduct. The length of the interviews was listed on the transcripts for six of the interviews. The combined time that those six interviews lasted was 39 minutes.

Jewell, who resigned from GWSC earlier this month following a Register report detailing allegations of misconduct against Jewell by swimmers and other coaches, has denied any wrongdoing. Schubert has also denied any wrongdoing. Club officials said Rianda was dismissed for her mismanagement and her inability to get along with co-workers and parents, a charge she disputes. An Orange County judge recently dismissed a part of Rianda's suit.

Jewell and Schubert remain under investigation by USA Swimming, the sport's national governing body.

Rianda and at least four other coaches repeatedly made complaints to Schubert about Jewell over the course of several months, according to documents.

But in a Sept. 27 email to GWC personnel services director Crystal Crane, Vanecek wrote that he had decided not to interview Rianda because he wanted to conceal the investigation from her and her attorneys.

"Having her attorney aware of this investigation bolsters her credibility, regardless of the results," Vanecek wrote in the email.

Vanecek also wrote that he decided not to reach out to Rianda because her charges did not appear to allege criminal acts and that it was unlikely her attorneys would agree to allow her to be interviewed.

He also acknowledged that he made no attempt to interview four other GWC coaches who had complained to Schubert about Jewell.

"We didn't want to run parallel investigations," Vanecek said Friday, referring to the USA Swimming probe and his belief at the time that GWSC was also conducting an investigation. "We didn't want to step on another part of another investigation and we didn't want to step on part of the lawsuit or jeopardize it or do anything to it."

Allard, saying he would have "absolutely" made Rianda available to GWC investigators, charged that Vanecek and the college avoided interviewing the coaches because of concerns about what they would hear.

GWC and its investigators "knew that (the coaches) would offer harmful testimony so they purposefully stayed away from them," Allard said.

GWSC president Patrick Gillespie said in a recent deposition that the club did not investigate Jewell and that he did not interview the four other coaches who had made complaints about Jewell. Instead, Gillespie said, he asked his two children who swim at the club and other Golden West swimmers attending barbecues and breakfasts at his home if they had seen any inappropriate behavior.

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